It's All Coming Back to Me

"It was gone with the wind,

But it's all coming back to me now..."

Celine Dion 

Oh my! Was the last time I wrote really January 2012?  Holy chalupas!!  #%@##.... (and a bunch of other words that I will not print in a family-friendly blog).

Thank you to my friends who asked me what in the world I've been doing all this time and why I haven't been writing...  So good to count you as friends!

So, this last week I attended Write on the River which was an ABSOLUTELY wonderful writers' conference with workshops and opportunities to share writing ideas, meet with professionals in the field, and pitch work to editors and agents. It was scary and wonderful all at the same time, and long story short... I met with an agent who likes my work!  So, hopefully, someday you will find in print my book,  Touching Two Worlds - Tocando Dos Mundos which comes from my students' stories about the politically heated issue of illegal immigration and the effects of such on their lives.  

From the preface of the book:   

Illegal Immigration.  It is one of those topics everyone talks about, but few want to touch.  It is always “about them” and “those people” and “how could they do such a thing?”   It is the dirt under the table and the mud on the glass.  It is about national security, economic stability and the war against terrorism… until one of those people becomes little Javier and he’s sitting at a desk in front of you, his feet barely touching the floor, his hair slicked back with Gorilla Moco gel.  And suddenly you realize that one of those people is also Estrella, and Mari, and Mari’s mom… and the man who fixes tile, and the woman who sells tamales.  Then things become a bit more complicated because now they all have names, and faces, and stories.  

In one workshop Bill Kenower said that there are really only two questions when it comes to writing:

What do I want to say?

and

Have I said it?

As I think about these questions I realize that I have a lot I want to say, and I haven't yet said it...

And so, I am back to writing A Day at the Rancho.  I went through the blog and kept my favorite posts.

It's been three years. 

Three years of graduate school.

                                                     

Three years at a new job.

                                                                  

Three years of kids leaving home, kids coming home, kids writing all their spelling words backwards on purpose, kids throwing "ornamental plums" at the garbage man, kids jumping off the curly stairs and taping their friends to the wall... 

Kids, kids, kids...  and crazy adventures with Mr. V which may or may not involve raising chickens on the 9th hole of the golf course (which, by the way, is the new urban thing to do).

It's so good to be back!